Guide
The Usta Şakirt tomb tower is the largest of the tomb towers at Ahlat, which is why it is also called the Ulu Kümbet, the great one. It stands south of the Seljuk Meydan cemetery, close to the shore of Lake Van. It has no inscription, so the date it was built is not known. Like the other Seljuk tomb towers here it works on two levels: a burial chamber below and a prayer room above.
The base is a nine-metre square of the volcanic cut stone particular to Ahlat. The burial chamber is entered through a door on the east side, a metre below ground level, and is covered by a vault, with slit windows in the middle of the east and west walls. The cylindrical body above is divided into regular panels, each with a niche at its centre in a repeating rhythm. The arched door niche has muqarnas above it and is framed by two borders, scrolling stems and rumi motifs on the outside and interlocking geometry within; four more niches treated the same way are set around the body. Three bands run around the upper part: a chain motif closing the panels, then a second band of interlocking geometry, then a third carrying the Ayat al-Kursi carved in white stone. Even the conical cap is worked — it is divided into nine tiers that narrow towards the point, each tier carved as a row of small relief panels.
